Or the most interesting story on how you aquirred one of your rods. Myself i'm bad about frequenting pawn shops and asking about flyrods and fly reels. Upon doing this i've found several good units but one stands out above all. I ask the owner if he had any and yep he did but it was in pawn and he did say it was a nice one. I ask to see it and he obliged. It was a Sage 4 wt with a Conservationist reel. He said it would be out of pawn in about 6 weeks. It had the pawn ticket attached so i noticed. I didn't have my reading glasses with me so i couldn't make out the fine print and told him i'd be back tomorrow. That i did. When looking it over i did note the name on the ticket but not the address of the owner. I went home and looked in the phone book to no avail. On a slim chance i called a tradio show in the area and told em i was looking for so and so and if anyone had a location for that lady please call. In about 10 minutes i got a call. The guy told me he didn't know her phone number but he could tell me where she lived as he had reposessed her car a few days ago. I then knew she needed money. I drove by and she wasn't home but her crack head boyfriend was there. I told him what i was looking for and he informed me that she was at the pawn shop doing some more business. She wasn't getting the unit out of pawn. I figured out quick that these goofballs didn't know what they had. He ook my number and finally she called and i offered to buy the pawn ticket from her for $30. Done deal. I headed for the pawn shop and payed the $40 interest and picked up the rod. I took it to BP and their price was $450. I've never fished the rod and it is hanging on the wall in a ritzy resteurant with other of my items in a display of several rods and reels and other parphinailia. Whats your story?
Eddy

I was working in a home a few years back (I'm a plumber) and the man (who I had known for years) asked me if I still fished. When I answered with a yes, he asked me if I ever fly fished. Another yes answer and he took his wife aside and had a short chat. He came back and explained her late husband had fly fished but neither of them did. Her late husband's fly rod had been in the closet since his death (many years ago) and they hated to see it just gathering dust and not being used. She would be happy to give it to me if I would promise to use it!
An old Sage Graphite II 896 (8wt 9'6") and I quickly accepted the offer!
It was still in decent shape other than one small blemish in the cork where it looked like a mouse had sampled the cork. A small patch of cork dust & glue fixed that problem satisfactorily.
I don't use an 8wt often, but I do make the effort to fish that rod a few times each year.

When I got out of the service in '69 I grew tomatoes and lived in a tent in CT, bought a Fenwick 12 wt, and cast off a jetty into Long Island sound, intending to move back to the Fl Keys as I had a job offer as a mate on a sport fisher. They would take anyone back then who was young and would show up for work on time. I'd sell the tomatos at the beach, honor system. Customers would weigh their own tomatos on my hanging scale and put the money into a box. Different country then.

The shop owner had some cane rods and I tried them out while there - Orvis and Leonard. Then my VW blew the engine and I missed the job start date. So I decided to try college on the GI bill (in Maine) - but it took forever to get the money so I paid with my own money, but liked school even less than before.

When my GI bill check finally arrived, I used it to order the Leonard Duracane and a Hardy lightweight. It took aobut 3 months before Leonard filled the shop's order. Once it arrived, I just couldn't see wasting good fishing time sitting in a classroom, so I wound up prowling the North Woods of Maine after ice out till the season closed armed with the Leonard (and a shotgun after woodcock and partridge season opened).

So, in the end, the money I wasted was my own. The GI Bill money went to good use and provided years of fun and healthy activity well removed from the germ factory.

It was the spring trout opener and after a long, cold winter of dreaming of catching trout the day finally arrived. I walked in for about 45 minutes to a certain spot that haunted me all winter. I had the rod with me that was perfect for the water I was about to fish. Finally at the spot I pulled off line and waited a bit, observing, before making that first cast. I saw the spot that needed to be cast to about 40' away and swung the rod. I had a bear of a time getting it out that distance, the line just would not shoot. I checked to make sure it was strung up correctly and it was. The line was through all of the guides and not wrapped around the blank.
I then checked the line to make sure it wasn't somehow ruined over the winter. It was as slick as new.
I couldn't live like this on the grandest, most anticipated day of the year so back to the Jeep I trekked. Did the rod go sour over the winter? It was a Winston TMF that worked flawlessly every time I used it up until that day. I couldn't figure out what happened but will say if you happened to be around when I got back to the car you could have bought that rod off of me for $10-20.00!
Before re-rigging a different rod and heading back to the river I put on my glasses for one more look at the TMF. I did lead the line through the correct guides but somehow managed to lead it through the stripper guide struts instead of the big hole it should go through!
Let this be a lesson to you young bucks when your vision starts to get weak... use your glasses, it could save you a re-sole job on your wading boots!

A couple of years ago I fished on the Cimarron River with a friend who has a cabin in Eagle Nest NM. We had a great time and caught a few fish. Later that spring I noticed that I could not cast the 0 wt Sage as well as I had previously. I assumed that my poor technique had become further degraded and continued to fish the rod with some success. One day on the Pecos my 11-year-old grand son took the rod and fished for a while and when he returned he complained “there is something wrong with this rod”. Kids, I thought. When I got back to Albuquerque I got a call from my friend who informed me that he had my rod and I had his 3 wt. Ahh, all things then became clear. I am glad I had my name on the rod so Jim could easily tell it wasn’t his. Too bad I had not looked at his 3 wt for my name so that I could have avoided many casting problems.

I recently went to an estate sale where fly-fishing equipment was advertized. When I arrived a young man who had a huge stack of related fishing items had snagged the best rods. We talked and he indicated that he didn’t think that he really wanted the three-piece Sage 2 wt and would let me buy it if I liked it. It was a custom made rod, much better finished than a Sage rod. The rod had not been fished to any extent and was only $79. Of course I wanted it and the young man was pleased to make me happy. I also bought a spool for an OB4 Galvin, which of course didn’t fit my OB3. I was however able to make $30 on its sale so the rod was a net of $49. I continue to look for similar deals.

Last summer I entered a contest put on by an outfitter on the Miramichi to advance C&R of Atlantic salmon. All I had to do was email him a pic of me releasing an Atlantic so I sent him a pic and threw in a video release as well.

Shortly after the season ended I checked his website for fishing reports and read; "We are pleased to announce that Karen Farnham is the winner of the Orvis Access 7,8, or 9 wt fly rod". I was pretty confused; Karen is my wife's name! I quickly checked our joint email account, and sure enough, her's is the only name that comes up. I must have sent the pics from that account.

Luckily she doesn't fish so the rod was ALL mine

The story doesn't end there though...it got better. I had been looking for a salmon rod for my son for Christmas on ebay and threw a $200.00 bid on a 2011 Sage VXP (retails at $525.00). I was sure I'd be outbid and never gave it much thought: ended up winning it for $179.00! I promptly sold the Access for enough to cover my total cost for the Sage...whew! livin' the dream

And no I didn't give it to my son for Christmas...got him a closeout RS4 which will serve him well I think.

When I was growing up money was tight in my house. I had bought my first fly rod with money I had earned doing odd jobs around the neighborhood. It was a 12 dollar no name glass rod with a matchiing Pfleuger Medalist reel . I cherished that rod and used it for everything .
So to my surprise(shock actually) my dad came home from work one night and
Announced he wanted to learn to fly fish and I was responsible to teach him. Shocking coming from a hard man whose main concept of fishing was bottom fish with a big old Penn conventional reel and a boat rod . Dont get me wrong he loved to fish but never even used a spinning rod let alone a fly set up.
So then he tells me on Saturday I'm to go with him to the local sporting goods store and pick him out the best rod and reel I could find so he could pursue his new hobby. I was thrilled to oblige.
Saturday came and as we cruised the fishing dept of the store I picked him out a 5 wt Fenwick with a matching reel and a good level floating line and some leaders. He asked me if this was the best the store had to offer and I said yes. He paid and we got in the car and headed home .on the ride home he informed me he had no time to practice now but that in the summer we would be going on vacation to New Hampshire and that the lake was a Smallmouth paradise and I could teach him there. I couldn't wait!
School ended I was out fishing things were good . Vacation came for our family and we loaded up the car and headed north .
We arrived and unpacked and my Dad said he wanted to show me something . Down by the lake moored ny our cottage was a row boat.with a 10 horse tied to the dock . He asked if I thought this would be good for fishing the lake and I agreed . Then he did something that I will never forget . He handed me the new Fenwick I had picked for him and said "enjoy your new rod and the boat for the week but just make sure your back before dark or your mother will worry". He walked back to the cottage while I tried to close my gaping mouth and absorb everything that had just happened.
Needless to say at the ripe old age of 11 that summer of 1967 was the best ever and one that I will never forget. And yes I still have the rod and no my Dad never did learn to fly fish but somehow I don't think thAt mattered. Thanks again Pop.

__________________
"I was born to fish" Lee Wulff
"There's more B.S. in fly fishing then there is in a Kansas feedlot." Lefty Kreh
" It ain't over till it's over." Yogi Berra
"Your not old,you've simply acquired a patina." Swirlchaser